Colombia's internal armed conflict continued to result in serious abuses by irregular armed groups in 2013, including guerrillas and successor groups to paramilitaries. Human rights defenders, trade unionists, journalists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders, and IDP leaders face death threats and other abuses. The administration of President Juan Manuel Santos has consistently condemned threats and attacks against rights defenders, but perpetrators are rarely brought to justice

Mónica Julieth Pernia Cortes with two of her children. Pernia Cortes was tortured and killed in Tumaco on June 5, 2014, evidence strongly suggests by the FARC.

Colombia

The UN Human Rights Council resolution passed on September 26, 2014, to combat violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is a critically important achievement for upholding the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 25 human rights and other groups said today. The new resolution follows a June 2011 resolution by the Human Rights Council that was the first by a UN body on human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

President Barack Obama appeared to have good news on Jan. 17 for foreign citizens appalled by months of revelations of U.S. surveillance overseas. The United States, he assured them in his much-awaited speech on new controls on snooping by the National Security Agency (NSA), is “not spying on ordinary citizens who don’t threaten our national security.”